House Republicans release report seeking to undermine Jan. 6 committee and star witness
House Republicans release a sweeping report attacking the Jan. 6 committee and Cassidy Hutchinson's account of Donald Trump's actions that day.
WASHINGTON — A House committee investigating the special Jan. 6 committee released a sweeping report Monday that Republicans say demonstrates that four other White House employees did not corroborate key witness Cassidy Hutchinson’s dramatic account of former President Donald Trump's actions that day.
“None of the White House Employees corroborated Hutchinson’s sensational story about President Trump lunging for the steering wheel of the Beast. However, some witnesses did describe the President’s mood after the speech at the Ellipse,” says the 81-page report by the House Administration Committee’s oversight subcommittee, led by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., a section of which was obtained by NBC News in advance of its release.
Hutchinson testified under oath, privately and publicly, before the Jan. 6 panel that she had heard that Trump had lunged at the steering wheel of the presidential SUV and gotten into a physical altercation with his lead Secret Service agent after he was told he could not go to the Capitol to join his supporters after he spoke at a rally on the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021.
While the new GOP report says one White House employee described Trump's mood after the speech as "irate," Republicans argue that "it is highly improbable that the other White House Employees would have heard about the President’s mood in the SUV following his speech at the Ellipse but not heard the sensational story that Hutchinson claims [Tony] Ornato told her after returning to the White House on January 6."
Since they took back the majority last year, House Republicans have been eager to relitigate the investigation and findings of the Jan. 6 committee as Trump seeks to win back the White House in November. One of the GOP's top priorities has been to discredit Hutchison, who was a top aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in the final days of the Trump administration.
Rating: 5